The Shadow
Clifton Forge—Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters will perform “Be My Valentine Show,” The Virginia Opry’s first show of its 30th performance season, on stage at The Historic Masonic Theatre on Sat., Feb. 5, at 7:00 p.m.
Inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, the late Bill Pinkney was one of the original Drifters from the 1950s. Maxine Pinkney, Bill’s widow who resides in Las Vegas, continues to manage Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters, the trademark name.
Maxine has agreed to have the band and the four vocalists inducted into The Virginia Opry prior to the performance, and Alfred “Mustard” Dearing, Sr., a local radio personality who has served as emcee for Appalfolks of America Association’s productions on many occasions, will be inducted along with them.
Dearing’s “Precious Memories Gospel Hour,” can be heard on Covington’s WKEY Radio Station’s 103.5 Big Country each Sunday morning.
Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters has performed for Appalfolks on three other occasions over the years, but the “Be My Valentine Show” will be the first time the group will have performed for AAA as members of The Virginia Opry, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s official Opry as of 2020.
M. Ray Allen, director of The Virginia Opry, said, “Bill Pinkney passed away in 2007, but Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters has continued to entertain audiences across the country, including what we hope to be a sellout audience here in Clifton Forge where the group last performed for AAA in July of 2010 as part of AAA’s 25th Anniversary Celebration.”
He continued, “Here it is more than a decade later, and Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters are still going strong despite the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Home Alone,” the movie classic, features Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters’ rendition of “White Christmas.”
AAA founded The Virginia Opry in 1992 to perform in The Historic Masonic Theatre that AAA owned at the time when the theatre was operating as the Historic Stonewall Theatre.
Allen concluded, “The group will perform such classic hits as “Upon the Roof,” “Under the Boardwalk,” “On Broadway,” “Honey Love,” “Money Honey,” “Someday You’ll Want Me To Want You,” “Stand by Me” and “There Goes My Baby.”
Tickets, depending upon seating location, run from $20 to $35 and can be purchased by calling (540) 862-5655 or by visiting www.historicmasonictheatre.com.
Bill Pinkney performed with the group the first two times prior to AAA’s 25th-anniversary show that featured Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters in 2010 on stage at The Historic Masonic Theatre.
The Historic Masonic Theatre (circa 1905) underwent a $6.9 million restoration after AAA donated the theatre to the Town of Clifton Forge in 2003. It reopened in July of 2016 following nearly a year of restoration work completed by the Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation.
